I found a place to park the bike today... Got a puncture 50km's from anywhere & couldn't get the bead broken. Rode it to a main road & had a guy drive over the rubber. Back & forward trying to crack that bead for 10 minutes. In the end we decided that it wasn't going to break so I rode it all the way home with zero psi. The tyre is munted but I was going to change it out anyway. I'm never going for a rear K60 Scout again - way too hard to deal with.
Went out yesterday, put on 150 miles, took about 6 hours. My neck and a@@ are sore. This was probably the most grueling trek so far on The Other Woman. The weather is turning perfect, mid 90's during the day, which makes it not too cold at 8,000 ft, yet not too hot for the pavement. The trek was up Mount Lemon via pavement, then down the backside access. Normally I would prefer to go up, but I did not know how to get there from the back side, so I figured just take the drive and find out. Boy was I in for a surprise. The downgrade was steep and rocky with many switchbacks, and the Other Woman just purred along in first and second gear. I learned that quite as much shifting was not necessary with the big thumper. Slight throttle control yielded a compliant happy motor. If I would twist a bit more, then you would feel the dead spot, while a minimal twist realized great power. All about finesse. After exiting the steeper access road, and switchback I could get a bit of wind across the radiator by reaching speeds of 20 mph for short sections. On the down hill in the trees, the fan was kicking on quite regular, even with minimal load. Then the adventure part of my ride started. On the back side of the hill, I had options. A fork in the road, no signs and never having been this way before I took what appeared the beaten path, in hopes to get back to civilization, as this was originally intended as a recon run for the ride UP the hill. I discovered years of trails to explore. Next town or gas? Who knows. I sense a rotopax in my near future. https://maps.google.com/maps?client...F-8&ei=JJlDUqzkCrSOigL47IHwBg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg (general area)
I rode to Gerlach, NV for a three day bit of fun. Some photos of the partially Terra-fied Strada: Friday morning after a long and cold ride through the night I found a nice sunrise near Fields, Oregon. Snow level was just a few hundred feet above this picture and tires were slippery in the fresh morning frost. Meeting up with George Swetland in the middle of nowhere....to be specific the center of the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe's land....32 miles from the nearest paved road. George's IBA number is #005...which means he was 5th place in the very first Iron Butt Rally in 1984. I'm #332 having finished first in 2007...and they're up to about #500 these days. His KTM is SERIOUSLY pimp. About 30 miles later I found Double Hole Hot Springs, parked the motorcycle and soaked in remote beauty. After the hot springs I rode 25 miles on the playa to Twelve Mile entrance. That means the left lobe of the Black Rock Desert Playa is 37 miles long! This is the general area they broke the speed of sound with a car and where Burning Man happens annually. Picture is from a fish eye lens to force perspective. The next day I went out on the playa with friends for a little target practice (Barbie is ziptied to a post) with pistols ranging from .38 to .45 in caliber and a variety of .223 rifles. It should be noted that passing cyclists (even TR650 riders like myself) RARELY actually hit the target. My cycle amongst a variety of others including FJRs, GSs, a Tiger, multiple Tenere, a DR650, STs, and who knows what. Shortly after our little shooting competition (I estimate $500+ of ammo was expended) I rode the playa for a bit. My iPhone is not the best choice, but it does give you a glimpse into the surreal nature of skating across a Euclidian flat plane, what it's like to ding your brand new AltRider skid plate on railroad tracks (about the 6:22 mark), and to have an impromptu adventure through some seriously slick mud, sand dunes, and to navigate a bit of the mythical "Jungo Road". Visit rail road track initially by myself at 0:00. High speed by the breaking up shooting group at 3:20. On tail of friend on DR650 at 4:15 Railroad tracks 2nd time at 6:00 Riding through some wet playa and washes 11:45 Jungo Road at 15:30 Arrive in Gerlach at 25:55 Commence to drinking at 27:00 And while the Strada is not in the picture...this photo is important because it's the Iron Butt Association Memorial Monument with the Black Rock Playa in the distance. It's an incredible location and sight. And also on the post is a list of IBR winners since 1984. We had three attending this year's event..plus Swetland from the first event. I bagged 5th place in this year's IBR on my FJR. If I had to pick my favorite picture of the weekend...it's probably this one. 6400 miles on the TR since I bought it in May. Only thing left to put on is a front Woody's spoked rim that will be finished sometime this winter. I should also report that while I didn't drag race every bike out there....there seemed to be two others that were interested for high speed runs given the slightly sketchy playa conditions (I would NOT have taken my FJR anywhere near its speed capabilities this year). There was definite resistance as you broke through the first 1/2" of surface and some areas of the playa were slower than others. It's a surreal place the playa......wicked fast on some spots and like running slo-mo others. I caught up to a GS1200 that was ahead of me and watched him lean down and flick the throttle. But, I think he rightfully rethought playa conditions and bailed out at about 90. I went by him at about 95. The second bike was the KTM 990 I talked about earlier and knew George would run WFO. (Wide Flippin' Open to those that don't know what that means) As I angled up on him on a parallel course at about 75 mph whacked the throttle and quickly overtook me. I whacked mine too and gained some ground back as he settled in on 95 or so. When he saw me coming whacked the throttle more as I settled in on terminal velocity of 103 indicated MPH (I did not have a GPS with me and sure it was a lower speed due to wheel spin). I doubt he was at terminal velocity himself, but he definitely had 5 mph and won the drag race as he let off and turned around. Coming back the best I could muster against the wind was about 85 indicated and he was clearly doing 95 or more....so the 990 KTM will beat a Husky...as it should for double the price.
Are you experiencing any problems with LED lights? My HID as well as a few peoples LED have been setting off the bikes immobilizer.
Went for a ride on Sunday to check out the fall colors here in CO. Took about 8-10 hours, 200 miles (or a bit more?). Kenosha Pass area with full entourage of tourists: The hill in the background of this picture is called Jefferson Hill. Also near Kenosha Pass, but away from the tourists. This is on the north side of 285. I went down nearly every dirt road on this side of 285 just exploring around. Eventually I went up Georgia Pass. This is a nice high-speed run up to the top from the south side. The north side, however, was a different story. I went down 355 towards Breckenridge. There were a few patches of snow and a lot of sloppy wet stuff. It was fine for a while, but as I got down a mile or two, I took a wrong turn and ended up on a road that parallels 355 on the other side of the creek. It was as muddy as the picture below for a mile or two before I finally wore out the TR and she decided to take her first nap. It took a lot of grunting and a few tries to lift her back up. The next couple of miles presented 2 areas where I had to bushwhack around downed trees that were blocking the easy route around some pretty serious mud bogs. Somewhere along the way I bent my shifter pedal. I discovered that today while trying to figure out why I couldn't get out of 1st/neutral without a lot of effort. If you look closely in the pic below, you can see the treadmark from the stock Terra tires. It goes right through the middle of the muddle on the right. This was towards the beginning of the trip. South side of Kenosha Pass, road 126. I think I bent the shifter up this road somewhere. (It turns into a pretty serious 4x4 trail for the last couple of miles to the top of the mountain.) Overall, I've been having lots of fun on this bike, but I do need to get this stalling issue taken care of. I had it MOSSed before I picked it up, and it was great for a while, but now it stalls all the time. That doesn't inspire much confidence at low speed offroad.
None yet. I do have them wired straight to the power source for the high beam (I know, bad, bad, lazy idea), and no problems yet. My FuzeBlock did come in today, so hopefully over the next two days I can get them wired through that.
Hey Blueghost, looks like a great day of riding! Liking that hard box on the tail rack. How do you have that mounted? I have the same or a similar case but haven't decided how to mount it yet. I have the BR side and top rack.
Thanks! It is a Pelican 1610. I took the handles and the roller back off, and just bolted it straight to the rack (BR) using nylon lock nuts. I had to cut off a couple of the knobbie things that stick up on the bottom of the case to get it to sit flat on the rack. I commute on the bike and there is enough room to put my boots, armored riding pants, armored riding jacket and a handful of small tools. I put the helmet on top and close the strap in the case before I lock it up. While riding I put my backpack in it. I try to keep the weight down since it is so high up. I had to take everything out of it to be able to pick up the bike in the mud. Too heavy otherwise. It's a big box, I wouldn't want any larger, but it works well. I don't intend to remove it at any point, so I didn't bother with any sort of a quick release system.
I love this photo. The sun on the trees is amazing. The change of season colours you get in Colorado are wonderful and really blew me away when I was over there a few years ago. Here in Australia, none of the native trees change really change colour, except after the bushfires go through. None of those marvellous hillsides of varying colours that I saw over there.
A few more from last weekend, but I can't embed the pictures so hyperlinks below. I swear they're a riot! A pope, priest, and Strada engage in a tug of war A pimp, Peg Bundy, AR-15, and Strada cruise the playa. A Strada is great for drive-by shootings of Barbie. Three Iron Butt Rally Winners in one place at one time. Stradas can do wheelies on the playa...sorta. Others are there if you want to do a slideshow. Tobie is an artist.
Took the TR650 to Nottarally in Hot Springs, NC this weekend. There were four TR650s there, and one TR650 owner who brought his TE511 instead (Turtlemoye). It was good to see the TR650s in action on the different rides. I went out with a group of DR650s on a 50 mile trail route and had a blast. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun I forgot to take pictures. So this is the only shot I got, which was after the ride.
I packed the camping gear and headed out to a rally this weekend as well. Held at Tarnagulla which is in the goldfields region of Victoria, Australia, a large area which was the centre of the 1850s gold rush. This photo taken at a marker noting the geographical centre of Victoria which I passed. http://goo.gl/maps/NWy2W A happy coincidence because a few weeks ago I was at another rally which is held near the geographical centre of another state, New South Wales.
Naugatuck State Forest in CT... One of only a few dirt roads where riding a motorcycle is legal CT... Leaves are almost peaking, maybe another week..
